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From Dec 19-23 I had the fortune to hunt and visit with Gerry Glasco in San Fernando Mexico at Crazy Feathers Outfitters. Green wing, blue wing & cinnamon teal; pintail, shovelers, gadwall, widgeon, scaup, canvasbacks, red heads and mottled ducks, wild quail hunted behind dogs (only outfitter in MX that does that) and outrageous dove hunting. Top shelf beverages, bottled water and superb food. Excellent infrastructure and personnel. No border problems, no inspection problems, no language barrier problems. You fly into either Harlingen or Brownsville, TX; their driver picks you up and delivers you about two hours south of the border to San Fernando. Top shelf beverage of choice upon arrival, “Welcome Senior Mike, margarita?” Por favor and gracias. Depending on the time of arrival you can depart for afternoon dove or quail hunting. Duck blinds are rested in the afternoon and only shot a maximum of twice weekly. After a PM siesta or shoot come top shelf drinks,appetizers (bacon wrapped quail, bacon wrapped duck, fajitas or nachos for a few examples) then a superb dinner. Over dinner which varied from steak & pork tenderloin to delicious prepared game conversations cover the days gunning and plans for the next morning. Wake up is by Pedro who provides either coffee, OJ or both and breakfast is to order prior to departure. By the way, once Pedro learns your dawn beverage or post hunt beverage or pre-dinner beverage it’s ready upon arrival. Waders and Benellis are provided. The Benellis were in great shape, with about 10 brand new SBEs. I brought my own waist high Rockies and my own Angleport choke tubes to use in their Benellis. Access to the blinds was very easy; water depth was never more than knee high with hard bottoms. Twice we were delivered onto the blind by a Polaris 6 wheeler so feet stayed dry. Blinds were very well dressed with full length benches and hang points for blind bags. Gerry’s local connections are superb; there were no intrusions by local or federal law enforcement types though I did hear stories of cops in Matamoras stopping drivers for bribes, but not during my trip. His connections with licensing authorities and ammo suppliers are also superb. HINT: this is crucial to solid hunting. In some places I’ve hunted in Mexico there were ammo shortages and/or no licenses available for ducks. Guides provide ammo, put out decoys and retrieve the fallen birds. I’m kind of picky about decoy presentation and the guys did not object when I modified the decoy placements to better suit the wind.
On Gerry’s Laguna Madre lease, formerly a DU project area, 60, 000 redheads historically winter over together with huge numbers of bluebill and canvasbacks. On other leases there are puddle duck ponds, some of them specifically and solely Pintail. I told Gerry I had never shot cinnamon teal or canvasbacks. He placed me on a pond so the next day saw me shooting both. While I observed huge rafts of divers what was more impressive were the continual flights of various ducks throughout the entire mornings. We could depend on flights ranging from a pair or two to maybe a dozen. We could shoot as long as we wanted up to a limit of 45 or running out of ammo (250 rounds of #4 lead provided). On my second morning there I was placed with a father and his son, Will and Taylor Pannel from Martinsville, VA. It turned out Will knew one of my old college partying buddies (the less said there the better). Son Taylor had shot one duck in his life so I decided to switch from shooter to guide so Taylor would get the best chances. I put him in the left side of the blind and modified the decoy spread so birds would decoy to his corner. I’d call the birds and the shots for Taylor & Will and shoot clean up. It worked. Using a Haydel whistle and my Foiles Timber Rattler, the birds responded and came in on a string. Taylor dropped the first four birds for the group, bluebills and blue wings. Will and I didn’t fire a shot except to knock one cripple down. Divers will occasionally respond to calls. Peeping a teal call on the whistle I came down hard and got them to turn, like making a come back call to mallards. Initially I used it to turn birds that looked like they were gone, then started more closely working on the corners. Once they were coming toward the blind I shut up and in they came, low on the water and into the J of the decoy spread, flaring at 15 yards. The Pannels left at 8:30 to shoot quail and I had the blind to myself. I got in a groove and shot some birds then switched from Benelli to Nikon. Success was getting the birds into the dekes. The Nikon was as much fun as shooting with the Benelli. I need to reiterate, the Benellis were in good shape, chokes not shot out, actions solid. The boys cleaned them during lunch and dinner so they were always clean and oiled.
On my second afternoon I switched from Benelli to Nikon and followed the quail hunting. Crazy Feathers has very nice kennels on site with over 20 dogs of various ages. The majority of the dogs were very stylish with the exceptions being young dogs learning their trade. Cover ranged from knee high grass to chest high millet with some overgrown draws. Cactus and snakes made chaps a requirement. Henry loaned me his chaps as my light field pants would have left me with festering cactus sores for weeks. The quail hunting was for wild birds over dogs, superbly trained and worked by Henry Cook. Two of the quail hunters there had sent their dogs ahead so as to be able to shoot over them. Bill Sarratt hunting with Mike Baker, both of Spartanburg, is a regular there and had left his dog Cricket at the lodge. A semi permanent resident she gets much more training and much more work than in SC and is available for Bill when he’s at Crazy Feathers. This was the most professional quail hunting I’ve ever seen. Equipment, vehicles, guns, dogs, handling and shooting were all superb. The goal was 15 to 20 coveys and 100 birds per two or three hunters per day. This goal was attainable depending on what cycle the quail population demonstrated. In the up years with reasonable weather 100 birds per day was workable, in down years clients must really be able to shoot but they can make that 100 bird goal. You have to remember that, like ducks, numbers do not reduce the need for accurate shooting. In fact when 15 birds rise from the initial covey you lose shooting time choosing your shot unless you have very quick hands. Bill and Mike certainly had quick hands. Several clients noted this was absolutely the best wild quail hunting in North America, no exaggeration or poetic license included.
The last morning Gerry and I shot together. A crisp cool dawn in a blind located on a point on the Laguna Madre brought flights of Bluebills and Canvasbacks. One side of the blind was in the sun so I had to wait until the ducks flew through the sun and glare to shoot. It was great; they came in on a string, flared just before the sun and cut left toward me through the glare into an open spot in the dekes. 15 yard IC shots for the Benelli and 15 yard 80 mm lens for the Nikon. We missed some easy shots, made some hard ones and knocked down most of the birds we tried for. After about 45 minutes we called it a day. We couldn’t kill them all, there was no reason to try and we and we did shoot a gracious plenty. The air was cool, the sun bright and the water a gorgeous greenish blue, a classic, classic day. We could have shot all morning but had no need to get greedy. The Laguna Madre area was absolutely gorgeous, blue green water, crisp cool breezes, clear blue skies and gorgeous dawn and sunsets. I could have hunted with shorts under the waders it was so nice.
Every group I met at the lodge was a returning client group and rebooked while there. The entire operation, logistics, infrastructure, food, game and gunning, was as professional as I’ve seen anywhere and continual near capacity bookings reflect that. When you decide to book with Gerry call early for optimal scheduling. Last minute plans will not work. However, the good news is that Gerry is opening a pheasant operation, Pheasant Run, in South Dakota, Sep 15, 2006. The professionalism in Mexico will be matched or exceeded in SD. There are already bookings from US clients who want the professionalism of the Crazy Feathers operation but in the US. Gerry is also opening up a high volume teal and whistling duck operation on the Yucatan peninsula in Campeche next duck season, Yucatan Outfitters. This is the ultimate wintering location for those birds. Gerry has an exclusive two year concession for guided hunting in Campeche. Yucatan Outfitters in Campeche will be for ducks what Argentina is to dove, high volume and heavy gunning. Perfect for a 20 or 28 gauge. Gerry is making absolutely certain that his logistics, connections and infrastructure are in place and working so that the excellence of the San Fernando operation will be matched or exceeded in Campeche and in South Dakota. Pictures include a rising flock of teal and a representative meal. I can not more highly recommend this outfitter. His phone number is 618.983.3631; email address is crazyfeather5@aol.com and his website is www.crazyfeather.net. For absolutely world class duck hunting and absolutely world class quail hunting on the same day this is the place. For pheasant or very high volume duck hunting same as above, Crazy Feathers Outfitters, San Fernando, MX; Pheasant Run, in SD and Yucatan Outfitters in Campeche, MX. Check out the website for details.
Mike Stritch
Dec 2005
PS. Before booking any Mexico trip ask for & call references. The difference between paying top dollar and trying to low budget the trip is massive. The difference is expressed in license availability, without a license you can’t take birds out of the country. The difference is expressed in ammo availability; low budget may mean inadequate shells or wrong shot size. The difference is expressed in relations with law enforcement, which means either big bucks in unbudgeted bribes or arrest in the boonies of Mexico where English is not frequently spoken. The difference is expressed in lodging and food and water. Quality of food and water, sanitation and bottled water and safe ice play a role in my life. Any savings you secure will absolutely cost you one way or another, believe it.
Pintails in the Mist
(At the Southern End of the Flyway)
Doug’s Hunting Lodge:
Southwestern Louisiana (Ducks and Geese).
By Mike Stritch
Man, I wish I could get my jacket or hood to close out that cold leak on my neck. Slicing like a knife into my neck. Red in the sky, birds in the air, teal I think. Pintail, my black lab is whining and twitchy, he knows what’s coming. Two big ducks in the dekes, feet down and wings back pedaling. Bam, Bam, William doubles straight out of the chute & skunks out of the blind. I’m steadying Pintail and don’t raise a gun. Teal incoming. My turn, got a double on GWT. William gets another single and we each score a single on the next incomers. 7 on the water in about 45 seconds. Four more in the next 15 minutes. Pintail, whose experience is limited and abilities expanding is thrilled with the opportunities. He’s in ankle deep water marking each bird before retrieving one to me. But he gets it going once he’s sure where everything is. Best single hunt of the trip. We’re covered up in Pintails but they’re out of season. Thousands of snows trade overhead but they ain’t coming here.
Here at Doug’s Hunting Lodge, Cameron Parish, Jennings or Gueyday, LA, depending on which post office you want to use. We have almost our two limits for ducks, GWT and mottled ducks, but we lost on mottled duck.
Some days you shoot geese, but some days you shoot a coyote, have your dog smacked by a skunk and take a slice out of your finger cutting limes for your adult beverage after a great dinner, still stinking mostly of tomato juice, and no it doesn’t really work quickly on skunk stink.
Doug and Mary have owed and run Doug’s Hunting Lodge for years and they have consistently donated great trips to SCWA. This was my third or fourth trip back, depending on how you count it, and it was William Dotterer’s first trip. My first trip, back in 02 or 03 was almost perfect. Limited on ducks and geese a couple of times, got to shoot release chuckar and pheasant. Great food and good accomodations.
This time we got there the second to the last weekend of the season. We arrived with the trailing edge of a cold front but not one hard enough to freeze up Arkansas and Northern LA and send new migrators into the area.
The first morning we were in a well laid out pit blind with a hard northwest wind in our backs and sunrise off to our left. Unfortunately a farmer had a butane cannon going overnight which scared the majority of the ducks out of the area. We had a lone teal buzz through the dekes around 6:30 and that was it for ducks. We saw about 30 but all at uncallable distances at unstoppable speeds obviously with a destination in mind. There were thousands of snows and blues, all above 1/4 mile in altitude and heading somewhere specific not to us. We saw a number of specks but even guide Brodney’s best efforts couldn’t get any below about 55 yards up. Our closest maybe makeable shot was about 55 yards up and 15 yards out to the side. We didn’t skybust.
The north wind has found a leak in my headgear and my right ear has gotten numb. Blind talk has gotten a little slow. I’ve tried out my new speck call (RNT Quackhead) but am so bad compared to Brodney that I quit, embarassed. Suddenly specks. Brodney is working them and they circle but won’t drop into range. We’ve got tight chokes and Kent Impact #1s so we’re ready but educating specks isn’t on our agenda if we can help it. I suddenly hear a splash behind us. I turn and there’s a coyote about 15 feet from me and 10 feet from Brodney’s dog. It’s thin, emaciated and very intent on the pup. I have never seen a coyote out in daylight and so close to humans. I figured it’s rabid and about to attack Lady. I yell to Brodney and drop a load of #1s into the mutt. Then another. It takes off, runs about 50 yards, shakes twice then runs about 30 yards, drops and does the curly shuffle.. We lose the specks and for the rest of the morning it’s no joy.
We go back to the lodge and it’s been a light day all around. The weather has had the geese playing very hard to get. I see a couple of guides who have become friends over the years, Rick and Jerry, they’ve had little success either. Must be one of those times because these two are very, very good. Looking at the game rack, I’m almost sorry I didn’t pick up the coyote, pound for pound I’d be the winner…besides it would look hilarious leaned up against the game rack, snout toward the birds.
That afternoon we head out to field hunt specks and snows. I take Pintail for what will be his first goose hunt. We’re laying against a 2 foot levee, surrounded by and covered with local vegetation. Pintail is bored… and twitching. I’ve got him close but he’s not happy. A flock of about 8 specks rises out of a field from across the highway and here they come. At about 60 or 70 yards they flare. Don’t know why, probably Pintail, black lab moving against dead grasses. Another flock comes in, maybe a dozen this time, they get to about 55 yards and flare. All three of us empty the guns but… no joy. And that’s the way the hunt ends. We’re walking out to the 4 wheeler and suddenly I’m wearing boot-flops. The gumbo mud of the rice field has pulled the soles off my old boots, both of them. Will is howling at the sight of my boot flops throwing mud 6 feet in the air. Pintail is off exploring smells and I recall another dog years earlier getting skunked. Just as I start to ask about skunks I see one run out of a bush the other side from Pintail’s nose. Pintail is now rubbing his face and rolling in the muddy field. He’s skunked but it looks like a young skunk and that the bush took most of the spray, that and the neoprene jacket Pintail’s wearing for warmth and camo. Gwen’s(my wife) gonna be pissed if skunk smell gets in the leather of her truck. Back at camp, I give pup the first shampoo, then the second with the dog vest getting the same treatment. I eat and decide I need a drink. Slice the heck out of my forefinger cutting a lime. I walk into the kitchen muttering and thinking martini instead of gin and tonic. Some new arrival asks how the day went. “Some days you shoot geese and…”
The second day we tore it up on teal and a couple of mottled ducks. At one point we had 7 birds on the water and Pintail was so excited he couldn’t decide which one to bring in first. Gorgeous dawn, birds were working and pup is having fun, this is what heaven is about. I was very glad that on my earlier trips I’d seen the glory that Doug’s can be because this trip was very hard. The weather was weird and the local birds skittish with no migrators. We hunted geese with Jerry one PM and using a speck call, he brought in a snow goose. He worked his butt off to keep it working it for a good 10 minutes. When Jerry called the shot Will and I shared the bird so Will at least got a goose on the trip.
Doug’s has great food, good acomodations and the hunting this time was hard. There were no easy solutions and no easy answers but that’s hunting. Doug and his staff worked very hard to put us on birds and the majority of the guides worked their butts off to give us the best possible chances. That’s the mark of a good lodge. Solid system and the guides are flexible and work hard to give us shots, telling us the truth. We weren’t faked out, it just wasn’t gonna happen well or consistently that trip. I’m so glad I’ve been there when it was great. We’ll be back again. Just didn’t time the birds this time.
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Rio Grande Rancho:
Cuahilla, Mexico:
Quail, Dove, Javelina & Huge White Tail Deer
Pre-dawn in Mexico has a different smell, earthier and richer. It’s chilly in mid January but not really cold; I’m wearing shorts under my waders. We’re put out on an island in the middle of the Rio Grande about halfway between Laredo, and Eagle Pass, TX. The blinds are simple stacks of brush. Pre dawn and the dew point is low enough for fog. It’s thick, visibility might be 50 yards but it’s that swirley kind of fog that screws with your depth perception. I find myself staring in to it and losing my focus. Same with Matt. We can see birds flying around the island but they can’t see our decoys. Using Haydel and Duck Commander whistles we peep and twitter. It works. Greenwing in the decoys surprising us through the fog. A couple down. A bigger shadowy duck ghosts down the river. Hit the whistle and it banks but is lost in the fog. Matt and I peep and then I can see a pair of Pintail banking, cupping and settling in to the decoys. 3 rounds of lead #4s later and the pair is down, magnificent drake. The head plumage almost purple it’s so rich and with a double sprig. We’re awake now but the fog is getting thicker. Very hard to pick the birds out until they’re in our faces. We’re both using very open chokes, which work beautifully. The next morning we’re in a slightly different place down the river. It’s a little warmer and clearer. Teal, Pintail and Shovelers reward us this time. As soon as we start to pick up the decoys around 9:00 a group starts to wade across the river, knee deep at that point. Mexicans making a break for the US; weird, sad. Glad they waited and didn’t spook ducks.
I drove to Duck’s Plus, hunted in Louisiana, picked Matt up in San Antonio and drove to Mexico to hunt at Rio Grande Rancho; in the river and in ranch ponds. Bobwhite and blue scaled quail hunting with the doves a bonus. Blue quail are very hard to hunt. They run when alerted and flush only reluctantly. They fly fast and low, aiming between branches of mesquite and cactus. You have to chase the blues to flush them and then shoot quickly and cleanly. Oh yeah, you need 1000 denier cordura chaps to keep the cactus mostly at bay. I was as pleased to harvest blue quail as I was for the gorgeous pintail from the mornings. This was not volume but serious hunting. The last day they asked Matt to kill javelinas, as many as possible. He got four iafter we shot quail for the afternoon. He considered himself a great white hunter though the bird boys referred to him as bambino. Rio Grande Rancho’s real claim to fame is white tail. Huge deer, 160 plus B&C point deer as minimum shooters. One deer this season was over 210 B&C points.. We saw a lot of deer while quail hunting and were told they were non-shooters. Too small, though to our South Carolina eyes they were huge. I was told with no bragging involved that if I ever wanted to hunt trulyt world class deer to come back, rifle in hand and ready to learn how to hunt, to really hunt big deer. The only place I’ve seen to rival Rio Grand Rancho’s deer was in Manitoba.
This is a five star place with superb, absolutely superb lodging food and beverages. They have a two station skeet thrower and Benelli guns. Unlike some places the guns were in great shape with no shot out chokes and barrels. Matt and I fell in love with their Benelli Montefeltro 20s for quail though my Berettas were our duck guns. Maid service, gun and game cleaning and morning coffee and juice delivered with the dawn wake up call combined for luxury. Since we were in Mexico I also let Matt buy and smoke a Cuban cigar while drinking a real margarita. Can’t remember if I told his mother about that. The staff really took care of us, checking our gear before we went through Mexico customs, picking us up on the US side, driving us through the customs and immigration stops and then on to our lodge through the army checkpoints. By the way, the Mexican soldiers were armed with loaded M-14s. We had absolutely zero problems even though I brought my two Berettas. One great truism of Mexico hunting: find a good outfitter and pay him. You are paying for his connections in Mexico as much as for guiding. The ability to buy ammunition, deal smoothly with immigration and customs officials, both US and Mexican, provide safe, clean lodging and food, goes way beyond what the shoestring operators can do. Look at it this way, would you rather pay a little more up front or try to bail yourself out of jail with “no habla of espanol”? Rio Grande Rancho, 1.877.490.8555, is a cut above the rest. Give them a call if you’re considering any Mexico hunting, particularly if you want truly world class white tail.
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